As you can see, each type of toy has it’s own physical properties and you can place them on your screen so that they form a Rube Goldberg device. If you’re a kid playing with this, you may not care if you make anything interesting. These toys are simply fun to play with.

Here’s what the home site says:

Designed with players aged 5 to 12 in mind, but enjoyed globally by everyone, this physics sandbox game replicates a child’s wooden toy box full of toys, including basketballs, robots, wooden blocks, snowmen, cannons, flying bees and a pirate ship. With its open-ended design, the possibilities are endless and players are limited only by their imagination.

As you continue to build your own playground, you can save the toy placements as “playset” files. You can also download playsets from the home site or use any of the dozens of playsets that come with the program.

I had fun playing with Souptoys and I can’t wait to show it to my nieces and nephews. The only thing I’d wish for, is that Souptoys was an open source project that everyone could contribute to. I’d bet there’d be an explosion of new toys to play with every day.

The latest firmware release for PS3 from Sony will remove the “Other OS” feature. The update is scheduled to arrive on the 1st of April. Do not go by that date because Sony has confirmed that this is not an April Fool’s Day joke.

The update which is scheduled to arrive on Thursday this week will not be mandatory though. It will be an optional upgrade but those using the older firmware will be devoid of many features of the latest 3.21 firmware. Sony says it has released this update for security concerns.

Though, after the PS3 hack by the famous iPhone hacker, this looks more like an insecurity concern.

For those going for this update,

You will not be able to use another OS on your PS3.

No more playbacks of unsupported formats like MKV.

No more interesting PS3 hack reports.

No more fun.

If you are planning on not using this update,

You will miss out on all the security Sony will probably talk about.

You will not be able to play the latest games requiring the latest firmware.

You will not be able to play Blu-ray discs.

You will not get access to PSN (PlayStation network) anymore.

Gaming consoles like PS3 are a power juice machine and are used in researches as well. The removal of Other OS feature will affect many more communities apart from gamers. (Via: Techherald)

This edition of Gaming Friday (GF) has been propelled into the future due to unavoidable circumstances involving time machines, Planescape: Torment, another GF and cartloads of chocolate. Do bear with us as we bring you the Everything That Hit Gaming Shores This Week episode. I am still hung over Torment which I re-started playing about a week ago.

Impulse has released the strategy classic Total Annihilation for $9.99 and has promised to treat it as a new game with constant updates and the like. Impulse also has a weekend sale up for grabs this time.

Steam, on the other hand, is running a sale for the super-realistic World War II shooter Sniper Elite. Patience, slow breathing and great reflexes are a must for this game.

Spikey’s Bounce Around is an incredibly entertaining and engaging game which not only lets you enjoy while you play, but also tests your brain in the process. If you have played the free version of this game, you might have been itching for more.

So if you have been a Spikey’s Bounce Around fan, here is some good news. The application is now available for free for a limited time.

For those who have not yet played the game, Spikey’s Bounce around is a puzzle based game, where a spikey has to a job of freeing the scared butterflies who are trapped inside glassed jars. Spikey’s mission is to cut through the hurdles and burst open the jars to free the butterflies.

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and save $1.99 on a fantastic game. Download the Spikey’s Bounce Around game for free from this iTunes link.

Remember that old news story about Worms: Reloaded? Team17 have started a Steam community for the game with no beta in sight. My guess is that the company is trying to build up enough anticipation for the game that when it does release, crazed quantities of buying via Steam will comfortably carry them onward for a healthy profit.

That last statement comes as a direct result of this:

Posted in the Facebook page of Team17, this poll suggests a very high probability (hint, hint) of new screenshots that will be up in the page. Techie Buzz will post as soon as it has confirmation on this matter. (Read: When Team17 does post a few screenshots)

The developer’s other game Alien Breed: Impact also has its community page on Steam before launch or even a beta. Curious.

For those who do not know anything about these games, I’d recommend Deus Ex, considering the fact that it is one of the greatest games of all time. Play it, soak in the story, and traverse a world full of gritty references, conspiracies and unmatched gameplay. I’d go as for to comment on the fact that many of today’s choice-based and storyline-focused FPSs have taken an idea from Deus Ex in one form or another. For its time, this game was unimaginably complex and full of rich characters and interactions. Its sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War tried to continue the setting of the Deus Ex, but did not exceed its predecessor’s success. However, Invisible War has far more branching points than the previous game and has a non-linear gameplay that is still rich and fulfilling to play.

The tactical shooter Hitman: Codename 47 spawned a huge fan following and a movie to boot. Though the movie was nothing special, the series is. Playing as a contract killer, gamers are to murder a variety of people with realistic weapons and settings. With enough reality in it to make anyone know a little bit of the enigmatic world of assassins akin to those in the James Bond universe, the Hitman series is a great gift for those who like spy thrillers and conspiracies of secret organizations that send trained assassins to change the course of world history. Hitman: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Blood Money take the gameplay forward as you guide Codename 47 around the world in a variety of missions.

Crysis broke damn near every computer that was thrown at it when it was released. For good reason too it was the most realistic looking game ever developed and it spawned thousands of Real vs. Crysisphotographs and the Yesâ€¦ but can it play Crysis?internet meme. The European developers of Crysis, Crytek GmbH (Crytek), have found phenomenal success with the release of their games with jaw-dropping graphics and fluid gameplay that keeps you begging for more.

In this year’s Game Developer Conference (GDC), Crytek showed off its new engine, the CryENGINE 3, coupled with stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) screens. The result was pure awesomeness. Being the fastest and the most robust renderer, CryENGINE 3 serves the PC, the PS3 and the XBox360 with the most photorealistic indoor rendering, extraordinary real-time effects and the impact of being in the game rather than playing it. Using S-3D technology, this involvement with the game became that much more real.

Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development at Crytek, said

Over the past few years, S-3D technology has emerged as one of the key trends both in movies and games. With CryENGINE 3, developers will have the ability to create their content in 3D on all platforms. There are basically no longer any limits to a designer’s creativity. CryENGINE 3 features many innovations to accelerate development, cut production costs and ensure teams are able to maximize their own creativity without delays

LittleBigPlanet was perhaps the best platformer for the PlayStation 3. As Joystiq reports, Three million copies,two million levels, and one Game of the Year edition laterSony decided to acquire the small UK-based developer Media Molecule. Their sugar-coated website chirpily proclaimed the engagement with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS). With two BAFTAs, and over 90 other gaming awards, Media Molecule is on a roll as Sony has promised to further their franchise and also help develop newer titles.

Shuhei Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios had this to say about the interest of SCE WWS.

Since they burst onto the gaming scene, Media Molecule have proved to be a truly exciting and innovative studio, who have proved their world-class credentials with the creation of the incredible LittleBigPlanet. SCE WWS is all about creating ambitious, innovative and ground breaking games, traits that Media Molecule clearly have. To bring them into our family proves our dedication to creating fantastic new experiences that we believe will cement our position as industry leaders.

It is heartening to see Sony create a core group of enthusiastic developers to keep the PS3, PSP and the PS2 thriving in the worldwide market. The inclusion of the teams of such brilliant and innovative games such as LittleBigPlanet portends good for Sony as well as the loyal gamers, not to mention the developers!

Peggle Nights has been a very popular game and at $19.95 it has to be, but now can get it for absolutely free courtesy PopCap. In a promotion for the PopCap Passport signup promotion, PopCap is offering users an opportunity to gift the Peggle Nights game for free to anyone with an email address, but with a catch, read ahead.

Users who are looking to get the Peggle Nights game for free will have to signup for the PopCap Passport (signup page). However, once you sign up, you will have to subscribe to a compulsory newsletter from PopCap without which you cannot complete the signup.

To get the Peggle Nights game for free, head over to the signup page and enter the details required to create a PopCap Passport account. Wait for the confirmation email and click on the link in it to confirm your account.

Once you do that, head over to the Passport Offers page and scroll down till you see something like the previous screenshot in the right hand side and click on it. Enter and confirm the email address of the person you want to send the free copy of Peggle Nights to and click on the "Send it Free!" button. You can enter your own email address too.

Not a bad deal at all, so have fun getting the game for yourself or gifting it to someone for free. You will only be able to gift one game per email address though, and the offer might disappear soon, so hurry while you can.

Futuremark Games Studio took the not-so-novel concept of the First Person Shooter and eliminated Newton’s meddling altogether in this fantastic multiplayer-only game. With the familiarity of the firmness of land beneath you eliminated altogether, the coldness and haunting of space encroaches upon you in Shattered Horizon. However, you have intuitive controls and intense 32-player action around you to forget all that and just press on the attack! Steam is selling the single-user game for $9.99, while the Clan Pack is available for $29.99! But, of course you cannot judge all that by the screenshot itself, so Steam is offering this game for free this weekend.

Shattered Horizon will test your agility, reflexes as well as a general sense of direction in a brilliantly built environment. This comes at a price this game is DirectX10 only. Yes it does require a DirectX10 capable video and Windows Vista or Windows 7 running on your computer apart from the other requirements to play. Yes, fighting in zero gravity has its price. Nevertheless, feast your eyes on the eye-popping visuals below:-

If your computer can support this game, you have the money to spend and you have a decent internet connection, not to mention if you are a fan of FPSs, grab this game off Steam before the weekend is up. If not, just download it and play it over the weekend (1262MB Download).